The First Leg

I had the perfect name for this week’s letter blog. I thought of it while we were traveling. You’d better write it down, I told myself. Nah, I’ll remember it, myself told me. Did I — do I remember it? NO! It’s gone! Just gone! Right out of my head. I’ve thought of lots of names since then but none of them as perfect as that one was. In light of that, we shall continue and call this one The First Leg.

“The First Leg? Traveling? Peg! What are you talking about!?” you say.

That’s right! Some of you know, some of you don’t. We had an invitation to meet Mike’s brother at cousin Suzy’s in Iola, Kansas and decided to accept that invitation. It’s been about three years since we’ve made the trip and none of us are getting any younger, including our friend Margaret who’s 95, soon to be 96, years old. We had another motive to make the trip as well. Mike’s brother Cork, a nickname for Charles, has decided to liquidate his house and go RV’en full time. He offered me his stained glass and all his tools. He’s not interested in it anymore since his wife Pam died.

“It’s not really that,” Cork told me. “I won’t have any place to do it anymore.”

No matter the reason, I’m glad to be acquiring tools that I’ve only thought about buying.

The weeks before we left were hectic for me. I wanted to make gifts for all of my friends and family who wanted them.

“I don’t have any place to put a giant ladybug,” my beautiful friend Linda in Missouri answered.

Instead of a giant ladybug, I made some danglies for Linda’s windows.

I know two things about Linda. Well, more than two things, but two things that are useful when making her gifts. Hummingbirds and butterflies remind her of loved ones and orange is her favorite color.

I tried my hand at bending wire into butterflies and hummingbirds. I didn’t like the first butterfly I made so that one hangs in my house still. The second one was better.

I loved the hummingbird so much I made her a second, stand-alone one.

And I made her a couple of small ladybugs, but I’ll show you those later. I know how much you like seeing my pictures.

“I’d love anything you want to give me,” another beautiful Missouri gal, Kandyce, my daughter-in-law, replied to my enquiry. So, I went to town making ladybugs and tin can flowers for her. I know she’s got a big fence to frame them on.

Then travelin’ day came. Everything was packed and ready to go.

We were out the door and on the road by seven a.m. on the seventh of September. The sun was just breaking over the mountain tops.

The geese were heading to the pond.

Once we were on the highway there weren’t a lot of things to take pictures of except trees, and if you know anything about me, you know I have a compulsion to take pictures. My itchy camera finger started taking snapshots of the Po-pos pulling speeders over and construction zones.

“Po-pos?”

That’s slang for police. Some people say it’s an abbreviation of the word police (po) and others say it’s an acronym for police officer (PO). I think it sounds better than the word pig they used in the 60’s and 70’s.

Mike and I amused ourselves pointing out every police car we saw by announcing “Po-po.”

When we got to the kids’ house, one of us thoughtlessly said po-po in the presence of our young and impressionable grandson. Andrew said something but I didn’t catch what. I did catch what his mother said though. “The fact that you know what that means disturbs me,” and Kandyce laughed.

I don’t think she was mad at us.

There wasn’t a lot of picture making through Pennsylvania because of all the trees, but I did take some.

I saw a hawk sitting on a tree branch. I’m always thrilled when I see one of these raptors. I’m sure he wasn’t headless, despite what the photo says. He must’ve been grooming himself.

Somebody somebody loved died here.

Then we crossed into Ohio.

We saw the Goodyear blimp as we got closer to Goodyear in Ohio.

Goodyear plant from the highway.

All across the country we’d see sets of three crosses.

At a truck stop I was walking Bondi. A semi was leaving the lot and stopped. A woman leaned out the window and yelled something to me. I thought she was saying something about my puppy so I started towards her to hear her compliments. She rummaged around and when she turned back, she was holding something out to me.

“Jesus loves you,” she said.

I smiled. What do you say? I know He does? Thank you? I smiled, took the card, glanced at it and stuck it in my pocket. “Thank you.”

Other semis were coming up behind them so they started to roll forward.

“Cute dog,” she says.

“Thanks!” I call over my shoulder as I head back to the grass.

Bondi did really well on the trip overall. She did get sick three times the first day out but never again after that. The only other problem we had with her was that she slept so much while we were driving that when we’d get to the motels she’d want to play while all we wanted was to sleep!

Bondi likes to be warm. She crawls under the covers at night so when I saw her curled into a tight little ball in her car seat, I knew the air conditioning was making her cold. A couple of little towels over the top did the trick.

If she got too warm, you’d see her little nose come poking out.

Wouldn’t it be cute if I had a picture of that!?

I bet I do. Somewhere. We were away from home for thirteen days and in that time, I took more than six thousand photographs. I’ve spent two days going through, deleting the bad ones, picking photos for my letter blog, and I’m not done yet!

“I can hardly wait to take your vacation!!” my beautiful West Virginia girlfriend said.

I laughed. You’ll get to see the countryside. Lots of barns, both old and new. Some of the people I love, both old and new. But I’m afraid some of the stories are gone. Too much time has passed and my memory isn’t what it used to be.

There were giant crosses, too!

Then we get to Indianapolis, Indiana.

Detours were posted.

Mike was distracting me while I was taking photos.

“Which way do I go?” he kept asking insistently.

“I don’t know!” I snapped another picture and looked at the GPS. “I think she’s taking us the detour. Stay in the left lane.”

As it happens, the left lane didn’t take us on the detour. We weren’t the only ones who didn’t turn off but traffic was definitely a lot lighter.

We went as far as the very last exit before the road dissolved into a pile of dirt, rocks, and other debris — and we were in downtown Indy.

It isn’t such a bad thing, you know, to take the road less travelled.

We got to see things we otherwise wouldn’t’ve.

An underpass decorated with murals.

All of them say Simple Pleasures on the bottom. When I Google it, this is what it says.

From a first birthday to a day at the beach, Torluemke’s mural depicts 19 scenes of simple pleasures. Bold in color and style, the mural was designed for easy engagement for cars passing by, while detailed scenes leave something for viewers passing by on the Indianapolis Cultural Trail: A Legacy of Gene and Marilyn Glick.

The mural was one of 46 murals commissioned by the Arts Council of Indianapolis as part of its nationally renowned 46 for XLVI mural initiative.

The center of the underpass was too dark to get good pictures so I only got a couple on either end.

Lucas Oil Stadium closer than I normally see it.

The GPS took us back up onto the highway past the construction and past the stadium again. This is view that I usually see.

It was starting to get dark as we passed the giant cross at the 57/70 split near Effingham, Indiana.

Mike drove for thirteen hours this day. I have to laugh. When he told me he wanted to make the trip in three days instead of two, I knew he wouldn’t.

“The Explorer was comfortable and I didn’t get tired,” he told me.

We found a motel that was pet friendly and ended the first day of our adventure.

Our second day on the road started early. The blinds on the motel window weren’t very heavy and so we were up with the first light. Threw on our duds and out the door we went in search of coffee for me and breakfast for all of us. Today would be a short driving day. Our GPS puts us in Lake Ozark, Missouri by 10 a.m.

Reading to each other is another way Mike and I pass time on the road. We read everything from billboards to license plates and everything in between. Mike, being an old truck driver, notices semis especially. He tells me the make long before my old Cadillac eyes can see it. But don’t feel sorry for me! No sireee! I do okay! And I’m still legal to drive — if I wanted to — which I don’t. Some of the names of the trucking companies were interesting. It was rattling around in my head that it might make interesting fodder for my letter blog. Then I saw a trucking company named Handsome Boy and I was sure it would. I started taking pictures.

This trucking company puts a picture of its founders on every truck. Beelman Truck Co. Since 1906.

Then I lost interest in that project. Oh, well. That’s Karma, baby.

We weren’t the only ones traveling.

This used to be an impeccably maintained horse farm.

The dome of the capitol building as we drove over the bridge at Jefferson City.

We went to the motel we’d made reservations for. We planned to stay for five days but I got to thinking, it might be cheaper to pay for a week and leave two days early. Thinking the gal at the front desk would be helpful, I questioned rates for a week versus the daily rate. That conversation became so convoluted that I was totally confused. I don’t know if she wasn’t understanding me or if she was deliberately being difficult. Every time I tried to clarify what she was saying, she would change it again. At first it was cheaper to pay for the weekly rate with a ten dollar a night pet fee, then it wasn’t. By the times she was done it was cheaper to pay the nightly rate and she charged a fifteen dollar a night pet fee.

Mike was so mad.

“When can we get in our room?” Mike asked.

“After twelve. It has to be cleaned first,” the gal checking us in told us.

We paid what she asked and as we were driving off the property, we saw the gal cleaning rooms.

Mike stopped.

“When will you have 121 clean?” he asked.

“It’s already clean. No one stayed in it last night.”

So, there was that.

Mike put the car in reverse and backed up to the door of 121.

We opened the door to a dank and stinky room. It might say no smoking but someone definitely smoked in there. You could smell it.

“Maybe it’ll smell better after we get the air going,” Mike said and started the air conditioner running.

We started unloading and just how small the room was became apparent. To start with it was only a queen bed. To get to the clothes-hanging bar you had to turn sideways and shuffle sideways past the mini fridge. The bathroom had no place to put your toiletries.

“You’re not going to be happy here.” I know Mike. We’ve stayed in better places that made him unhappy. “Besides, it stinks and gives me a headache.”

“I can stand it for a few days,” he said bravely.

We finished unloading and headed for the Lake.

But Mike really wasn’t happy. “They told me ten dollars a night on the phone for the pet fee and now she’s charging us fifteen!”

“I can get our money back and we can stay someplace else,” I offered.

“She probably won’t give it back.” Mike sometimes thinks the worst of people.

“Yes. She will. Or I’ll contest it on the credit card. We don’t have to pay for a place we didn’t stay in.”

Just before we got on the highway to go from Eldon to the Lake, Mike spots a Super 8. “Should we just check it out?”

“Sure.” I breathed a sigh of relief.

At the front desk of the Super 8 the gal quoted us a rate that was only a little higher than the one we’d already paid for.

I looked at Mike. “It’s a king bed and if it’s better we won’t mind paying a little more.”

Then we asked about the pet fee and she told us it was a one-time twenty-dollar charge. That would make it a better deal.

“I can show you a room,” she offered.

The room was a hundred times better than the other one. It had a king bed, lots of room, and included breakfast and a pool, neither of which the other place offered.

Then we told her our problem.

“Will she give us our money back?” Mike asked.

“Sure. Just tell her you have a family emergency and can’t stay.”

“In other words, lie?” I said.

She shrugged.

“If we can get our money back, we’ll be back,” Mike told her.

Back in the car, on our way to the first motel, I told Mike. “I can’t lie. If you want to tell her that, then go ahead.” I guess that makes me a bad Christian if I give someone else permission to commit a sin, but in truth, you can’t make someone do something they don’t want to do.

Mike thought about it. “Just tell her we can’t stay there. The room is too small and it stinks and gives you a headache.”

All of those things were true.

We reloaded our car with our possessions before I went to the front desk.

“I’m sorry. We just can’t stay here.” I could tell she wasn’t happy. I hurried on. “The room is too small; we can’t stay in it for five days. Besides, it stinks. Someone smoked in it and it gives me a headache.”

“That’s why I told you to come back after 12. It has to be cleaned!”

“I’m really sorry. We can’t stay here,” I iterated.

“Okay. I’ll give you your money back.”

She gave me a receipt for our refund and we went back and registered at the Super 8. We would be much happier.

For the second time that day, we unloaded the car. Then headed out to the Lake.

The dam was closed, but we knew it was. They were resurfacing it and making other improvements. We ignored the detour signs because we knew a back way around.

My first look at the dam and the place we called home for many years.

Things on the Strip have changed. Some old buildings are gone and new ones have taken their place. At the time, my mind was on other things, and I didn’t think to take pictures for you. But rest assured, I would before we left.

“What was on your mind?” you ask.

Lunch! It’s been years since I had Nok’s Thai food and I was looking forward to a plate of steaming Penang while Mike liked the tofu Pad Thai. It was early, just before 11, and only a few of the businesses at our old strip mall were open.

“I can get it and we can sit at the picnic table in front of the ice cream store if you want,” I told Mike. It was too nice to sit inside.

The ice cream store wasn’t open yet and Mike agreed.

I ordered the food and messed it up. I got Mike’s tofu in my Penang and he got my shrimp in his Pad Thai. Neither one of us was happy about that mistake! I just always forget which dish is which.

While we were eating our food, Barb came in. She and her husband Ed own the ice cream store.

Barb, you may remember, is a fabulous artist! I have two of her works hanging on my wall and I just love them!

We visited with Barb and another old tenant for a while then decided to drive down the Strip and see my beautiful Missouri gal Linda. She took over Bob’s Sunglasses after her father passed away and has been running it with her husband ever since.

We caught Linda having her lunch and we offered to come back later.

“No! No! It’s alright. I was about finished anyway!”

We hugged and chatted for a while before I presented her with the gifts I’d made her.

One look at the butterfly and hummingbirds and her eyes welled with tears. She loved them! She even liked the baby ladybugs I made for her, which were the only things she knew I was bringing.

It would be hours until the kids got off work. Mike and I went back to our room to rest for a bit.

“There’s a new quarry,” I said as I snapped a picture.

Mike decided on a nap while I walked Bondi. There was a stand on the corner near our motel with flowers and some cool wooden trucks. I wanted to get a closer look.

A lady watering plants asked if she could help me.

“I just wanted to check out the trucks,” I told her.

“An Amish guy makes them for me,” she said.

“They’re fabulous!”

We chatted for quite a while.

I noticed a gal on a bike towing a cage up on the road. “What’s the deal with that?” I asked nodding towards the gal.

She glanced in the direction I’d indicated and sighed. “I think she sits on the corner and panhandles. I feel so sorry for that dog. It’s so hot.”

And I said the thought that came to my mind. If she thinks the dog is being abused then… “You could report her.”

She kept silent and when she did speak, she changed the subject.

Later, another day when Mike and I were getting off the highway, I did see her sitting at the end of the exit ramp.

I went back to the motel room and Mike was ready to head out and see the kids.

We were a little early, getting there before the kids did, so we sat on the swing in front of their pretty house and waited.

It wasn’t long till we see Kandyce’s car pull over to the mailbox then into the driveway.

Andrew!

Oh my gosh!

I bet he’s grown a foot since the last time we saw him! And more handsome too!

Andrew has a German Shephard. Her name is Lulu. She’s a very beautiful shepherd and she’s very protective of her family. During her formative years, the time she should have learned socialization, we were in COVID lockdown. Unfortunately, and much to Mike’s chagrin, Lulu had to stay in the fenced back yard while we were there.

Oh my gosh! Speaking of the fenced back yard…

Lulu was in the house in her kennel and Andrew and I took Bondi out to do her business. I watched Andrew on the trampoline. I watched him throw balls into a special something or another that bounces it back to him.

Bondi was becoming a little braver and made a few hesitant runs towards Andrew, stopping after just a few feet.

“Why don’t you chase her,” I suggested to Andrew. “She likes that.”

Famous last words!

Andrew feigned a grab for Bondi, Bondi took off running. She’d go a ways, stop, and look back. Andrew was hot on her tail and she took off again, zig-zagging back and forth. I thought she was having a good time. Boy was I wrong!

“Yipe, yipe, yipe, yipe, yipe, yipe, yipe, yipe!” she cried.

I’m sorry, but I had to laugh.

Kandyce and Mike came out onto the deck just as I was picking Bondi up to console her.

“What did you do to her?” Kandyce asked Andrew.

“Nothing!” He opened his arms, palms up, surrendering.

I jumped to his defense. “He didn’t do anything! He never touched her!” And I still laughed! Don’t judge me.

It wasn’t long until Kevin came in from work and we sat around and talked while Kandyce made a fabulous shrimp alfredo, salad, and garlic bread dinner.

Just about the time you think the little one isn’t paying attention, he chimes in. “Tell them about your black eye.”

Kevin turned to face us and for the first time I notice the remnants of a shiner.

“I was working on a dock ramp and the ramp attacked me. It got me across the nose and under my eye. Ramps are my nemesis,” Kevin explained.

Kandyce pulled out her phone and showed us Kevin’s eye in all its glory.

There were a couple of other times when Andrew suggested they tell us something, too. You have no secrets when you have an eight, soon to be nine, year old in the house!

After the dinner dishes were cleared away, we unloaded the gifts we’d brought for the kids.

Giant ladybugs for Kandyce’s fence.

“Show me how much you love your ladybugs,” I told Kandyce and she gave me the biggest smile!

We brought a Battery Daddy for Kevin and for Andrew a giant five-pound tub of animal crackers, which personally I love animal crackers. They’re low in sugar. But you could spread peanut butter or frosting on them if you wanted to. A box filled with treats and things for him to paint. Miss Rosie sent along a couple of games for Andrew too.

After Andrew looked at all of his gifts, he selected a little dog, got his paints and brushes out, and painted a little dog while the adults chatted.

We retired to the living room and Andrew got out a Skee-Ball game that Miss Rosie sent. He sat and played with that game for an hour. Sometimes he’d over-shoot and have to chase one of the hard little balls down. I knew that once he perfected his technique, he’d be challenging his dad to a game.

We were pleased the kids loved the gifts we brought and we ended the night.

And with that, we shall end this one.

Let’s call it done!